The Departments for Work and Pensions and Health are to jointly appoint a national director to focus on the health and well being of people of working age.

The new national director will oversee the implementation of the Health, Work and Wellbeing Strategy to be published later in the autumn, raise the profile of work and its relationship with health and wellbeing, and help develop specific outcomes with all stakeholders to ensure people of working age get the help and support they need to stay in work.

Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Health, said: “The new national director for Occupational Health will lead a ground-breaking partnership that will help to break the link between ill-health and being out of work. We want to transform opportunities for people to recover from illness while at work; and maintain their independence and sense of worth.”

David Blunkett, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said today: “Patricia Hewitt and I are committed to work with the Health and Safety Commission, with business and the Trade Unions, to create a new occupational health programme for Britain.

"This is a programme to prevent ill-health, to help rehabilitate those in ill-health, to reduce absence from work, and to avoid people relying on benefits out of work.

"The new National Director will work with Ministers to build a strategy unmatched in Europe or the World."

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